Happy Endings
by laurzz
Summary: DannyLindsayLucy. post-ep for 9x06. "Looking at him now proved that her decision all those years ago had been right."


**A/N: Well guys! hello again! Sorry this one is a little later, I've had major dramas with this ridiculous excuse for a laptop... as it turns out my charger and battery are on their last legs, so I've got myself a new charger, and I'm debating a new battery. But basically, I've been here, there and everywhere today to try and sort my laptop's little life out. haha. **_  
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**I don't know about you, but I felt like the episode was more old school NY, with the foot impressions and the whole, ooh look at the writing on this cheque. I was definitely getting Stealing Home feelings when Lindsay does the same thing Danny did. And with the amount of DL we've had in the past few weeks, I figured we were due an episode where they didn't show up for about 3 hours. hahaha. **

**Anyway, huge thanks for everyone who read and reviewed last week's post-ep. And the other cheeky oneshots I posted up too. you are all fabulous and I will get to replying soon. I've done a few but with halloween this week, it's been a busyyyy week at school. Special thanks to: Dantana15, webdlfan, meepster, 123Montana321, MesserFamilyFan100, gigglesforcsi, Thorne Lockehart, LoveShipper, Catty, Alex Joleta, Saderia, Alexindigo, brendanakai, CTI-Jenn, kris is treble and 18lzytwner. **

* * *

_I heard you laughing in a crowd outside a restaurant we used to go to. I caught a glimpse that stopped me in my tracks, took me back. You looked happy with the little girl up on your shoulders. I know where she got those crystal eyes of blue… time's been sweet to you._

_Good in Goodbye – Carrie Underwood._

* * *

"I'm confused, Adam didn't lose it? Did Mac know where it was?" Danny asked as he reached for his beer and downed the last drop.

"Adam lost it." Lindsay sighed at Danny's inability to listen properly. "You're not listening to me..."

"I am listening!" he growled. "You're just not saying what you're think you're saying."

"Listen to me, I don't understand what is so hard about this." she sighed. "Adam parked in the red zone without putting out the markers that let's us park wherever we want so it got towed... Mac had put a call in or something to impound." she said she picked up a napkin and wiped the remains of Lucy's dinner from her face. "Are you ready, pumpkin?"

"Yep!" She smiled as she reached for her strawberry milkshake. "I'm stuffed."

"I should think so too," Danny scoffed, ignoring Lindsay's insistence that he didn't listen. "You had dinner and a dessert… and then you finished Mommy's too. You're a little piggy!" he laughed.

"I was hungry!" Lucy narrowed her eyes playfully before letting out a yawn.

"And somebody looks tired too." Lindsay wiggled her eyebrows at Danny who was trying to attract the attention of their waiter for their bill. When he eventually gestured for the bill, he turned his attention to a sleepy Lucy.

"How about you ride on my shoulders when we get outside?" he asked, seeing the relief on Lindsay's face. When they had walked in to the restaurant over an hour ago now, it had been crowded, and with it being a Friday, and them deciding to eat at the aptly named TGIFridays, he could almost hear Lindsay's worries of it being crowded outside, especially because of what happened last time they were in the midst of a crowd of people.

"K." Lucy muttered as she folded her arms on the table and laid her head down on them.

"She's never usually like this," Lindsay said, holding her hand to her daughter's head. "I wonder if she's coming down with something?"

"This week has been tough," Danny said, "busy week at school, Halloween… she's probably just overtired."

"Maybe," Lindsay said, pursing her lips together. "I might check her temperature when we get home though, just in case."

"And that's why I love you, even though you're a pain in my ass." he smiled as the waiter dropped their bill on the table and Danny threw down an assortment of money to cover their dinner. "Alright squirt, you ready?"

Lucy looked up from her place on the table and nodded and yawned again. "Yeah."

Lindsay shuffled out of the booth and then reached in for Lucy, who was shuffling lethargically towards her. Lindsay smiled as she heaved her six year old from the booth and she instantly settled against her, burying her face into the crook of Lindsay's neck.

"Well this isn't what we arranged," Danny smirked as he watched Lindsay turn with an amused look on her face. "Hmm, want me to get the bags?"

"Can you carry her?" Lindsay asked. "I slept funny last night and holding an umbrella today at work for like twenty minutes hasn't done me any favours."

"Sure," he said softly as he manoeuvred himself around the table and carefully took Lucy from Lindsay's arms. The little girl was transferred seamlessly, after the two parents having years of practice together. Lindsay quickly collected her handbag, filled with all things Lucy before tucking her hand into Danny's back pocket as a signal to him that she ready to go and was following him closely. The quickly made their way to the exit and escaped the busy family restaurant… and just as Danny had predicted in Lindsay's eyes, he felt her grip a little tighter onto the material of his pocket. With his free hand, he snaked it around his body and gathered her hand from his pocket and locked his hand securely around Lindsay's, keeping her close and safe.

"Not doin' too well with crowds, are you?" he said quietly, as if the crowd around them would overhead.

"There's just… I don't want to… yeah." She sighed.

"I know," he smiled as he pressed a kiss to her temple as she tucked herself into his side. "I don't think I'd be going searching for crowds either if I were you babe."

"I'll be fine. I think I just haven't really been around a crowd since... you know."

"I know," he smiled as he shifted Lucy in his arms before holding his and Lindsay's joined hands together in the air, gesturing for a taxi.

* * *

_Hurry up, I'm getting cold and hung-_

Glancing up from her cell phone to check her surroundings in the busy crowd outside of the restaurant, she felt her heart rate increase as she blinked a few times. Surely it wasn't… was it? As she narrowed her eyes, she realised it was… and what a sight it was. She placed her phone with the unfinished text message into her coat pocket and watched them carefully. _Well, I'll be damned,_ she thought. _Danny Messer._ It had been a few years since that name had popped into her head. It was strange to see him in all honesty. He looked different. He'd finally lost his glasses like he'd always wanted to. He'd talked a few times about getting contacts, but he'd never done it. His hair was still styled perfectly and he looked the same build as he had been all those years ago.

His physical appearance however was one of the smaller things playing on her mind. The biggest surprise was that he was holding… a little girl. Danny Messer with a little girl. A little princess. She smiled brightly as her eyes focused on the sleeping girl. She had to be about five, maybe six? No doubt hiding under her closed eyelids were some sparkling blue eyes that resembled her father's perfectly. In her little face, she could see Danny, but also, of the woman standing next to him. The little girl was a perfect mix of both her parents, she mused. She watched as he pressed a kiss to his sleeping daughter's temple, and she felt her stomach fill with butterflies. It was strange to see a different Danny Messer. Visually he looked more or less the same, but that was about it. He'd grown up more than anything. It wasn't that he'd changed because he still had the same cheeky smile and the same aura about him. It was that he'd matured… which had really been all that he'd needed to do. When she'd been dating him, he'd been so wrapped up in himself that he quite simply wasn't ready to share himself, or a life with anyone else. Now however, it seemed that he'd done just that… grown up.

Speaking of sharing a life with someone, her eyes now moved onto focus on his wife? _Wow,_ she thought. _A wife and daughter. That was something._ Shuffling in her position so she had a better view, she could see that the woman who had her hand in Danny's back pocket looked a lot like his old co-worker. She tilted her head to the side as she soaked in the woman's appearance. The curly hair had gone; replaced by shorter, styled locks. The years had aged her face slightly, but it was clear to see that the woman who Danny had just taken hold of was definitely his beloved Montana. She had always been suspicions that he'd had feelings for the girl back when they had been together. She'd never be able to say whether anything happened between the two of them while they had been dating. She hoped it hadn't, but who's to say? She thought. If it had, she didn't know, and what she didn't know couldn't hurt her.

When they had been dating, there was something that had told her that Danny was supposed to be with Lindsay, and she was just keeping the seat warm until Lindsay settled down next to him. The way that he had talked about Lindsay had sparked a green, envious monster within her, no matter how innocent his talking points about Lindsay were; partially because she knew that deep down, his eyes didn't light up about her when he talked about her to Lindsay. Then of course, those suspicions were confirmed when they'd met once. He'd promised her that he could meet his friends one afternoon, and they'd gone out for lunch with about six other members from the lab. His boss, she forgot his name now, wasn't there, but more or less everyone else he worked with had gone along… probably interested to meet her and find things to wind Danny up about. Lindsay had been there and had walked in right behind Danny, and even though the girl had done nothing wrong, she'd felt a little bit of anxiety when she'd come face to face with the famous Montana. It wasn't that the girl was horrible, or she suspected Lindsay of plotting to get with her boyfriend… but more in that she was all those things she was afraid of; lovely, sweet, funny. She'd sat and had a thousand conversations with Lindsay and by the end of the lunch, it had been concreted within her mind that their attraction was something very real, and it was also something that neither of them could help.

She'd held onto him so tight even though things weren't right. At the time, she'd been totally clueless as to why she just couldn't seem to get him to hold onto her, or probably more important, for her fingertips to let go of the hold onto him, but now she realised that even though she'd hurt for a long time, what she had thought she'd been destined for wasn't really her destiny at all. It had been someone else's happy ending; not her's. Her happy ending was down the road somewhere, but it wasn't with him. At the time, she'd been devastated and furious. She'd gone along to meet his friends, almost to integrate herself into his busy, busy life… and had successfully managed to talk herself out of being with him completely. Watching him with Lindsay broke her heart. She remembered one thing, and even to this day, she could feel the hurt and realisation in her heart. They'd got a pitcher of water for the table, and he'd poured Lindsay a glass, then had turned and poured her a glass. That was it. So simple and so innocent… and even though it probably wouldn't have even been something Danny subconsciously thought about, he'd effectively put Lindsay first. And that had sealed the deal. Even though it hurt, she didn't have a right to stand there between two people that were destined to be together… no matter how hard she wanted to try and make it work.

Looking at him now proved that her decision all those years ago had been right. Out of his differing features, Lindsay's new hairstyle and their growing family, she'd realised that everything really did happen for a reason. Danny Messer had married Lindsay Monroe. He looked happy and better than ever. And no matter how hard their goodbye had been, for her at least, she was happy that he'd gotten everything he'd wanted; even if he hadn't realised it was what he wanted at the time.

"Cindy!"

She turned and smiled at the voice. "Hi, I was just about to text you to see where you were. I'm freezing. Where the hell have you been?!"

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I got caught up… I had to go and pick something up. Have you been here long?"

"Long enough," she frowned. "Well, can we go eat, I'm starving."

"In one second," he said, she watched him take a deep breath before he lowered himself to one knee to tie his shoe. "Say, isn't this how we first met?"

"Something like that," she smiled, her annoyance dissipating with his smile. "All those years ago. I nearly fell over you while you were, rather stupidly tying your shoe in the middle of a crowd. Who does that?"

"I believe that's what you said to me then." He smirked. She glanced down to both shoes and realised that neither of them were untied. She blinked and narrowed her eyes at him.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

* * *

"This is fuckin' ridiculous." He grumbled as he rudely gestured at another taxi that had sailed past them. "What does it take to get a cab around here?"

"Show a bit of boob," Lindsay smirked. "That'll have them pulling over in no time."

"Can't, sorry." Danny deadpanned. "Got my laundry day bra on today. They'll turn away in horror and we'll never get home."

"Hmmm." Lindsay smirked. "Plan b; looks like I'm going to have to flash instead."

"I'd like to see you try." He scowled playfully as a cab began indicating towards the sidewalk. "Finally. Jeez, you're good, even the mention of you flashing and we've got a line of taxis. You got some magical power?"

"Well I've managed to enchant you, so I'm going with yes."

"Funny." He smirked. Just then a round of applause broke out, making them turn their heads towards the commotion. They settled on a couple who were wrapped up in an embrace as the guy effortlessly lifted his girlfriend into the air and swung her around.

"Aawww," Lindsay sighed. "They must have just gotten engaged. Damn it, we missed it!"

"You and damn marriage proposals; you're obsessed."

"I just like to find ones that were better than mine." She said with a straight face. As his heart stopped, the tiny, teasing smirk appeared on her lips.

"Bitch." He muttered as the cab finally settled next to them. He opened the door and held his arm out for Lindsay to get in first. "I was nervous. I thought you were going to say no... which coincidentally, you did. So give me a break."

"We played twenty questions." Lindsay shook her head as she stood inbetween him and the door. "You have absolutely no excuse."

"The second one was better!" he implored. "I… I had more game then,"

"I'll give you that one." She smiled as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. "You'll understand the importance of a good proposal when Lucy gets a boyfriend."

"Hah. Good joke, Montana. She's not getting a boyfriend... ever." Danny laughed as she shuffled into the cab. He lowered himself down and placed Lucy on the seat next to Lindsay. She instantly flopped into Lindsay's side and Lindsay wrapped her arms around her quickly.

Before he got into the cab, he glanced up and towards the commotion of applause, and for a split second, his eyes focused on a face he felt like he knew. He couldn't place her, or figure out who she was, or where he knew her from… but her face was definitely familiar to him. He smiled as he watched her wipe away tears of happiness while admiring the ring on her finger.

_Good for her_, he thought as he climbed into the cab and revealed their address to the cab driver. He glanced over at Lindsay who was running her fingers through Lucy's silky brown hair with a smile on her face as she hummed a song she'd heard earlier on the radio. He stretched his arm across their seats and settled in his place as he enjoyed the ride. All he hoped was that her happy ending is as good as his.

* * *

**Oh, did I mention this was slightly different this week? ahahah oooops! thought I would mix it up a bit, hope you didn't mind and you enjoyed it. I'd love to know what you thought. Thanks for reading! :) **


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